


Stasis

by Angy98



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, TV Special: Miraculous World: New York, referenced NY special
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27064708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angy98/pseuds/Angy98
Summary: At long last, my official contribution to the ML fandom regarding the NY special!I didn’t have much time to work on a fanwork, back when the movie aired, but now here I am.Hope you’ll enjoy.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 32





	Stasis

**Author's Note:**

> At long last, my official contribution to the ML fandom regarding the NY special!  
> I didn’t have much time to work on a fanwork, back when the movie aired, but now here I am.  
> Hope you’ll enjoy.

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” Duusu repeats, mocking the odd, beeping computer screen in the room. The kwami tries to race against the green EKG line that runs through the screen, flying back to the other side of the machine when the line is about to move again.

“Could you please stop? It’s getting annoying!” Nathalie admonishes, and the kwami immediately halts in mid air, before floating back towards her holder.

“Sorry, Miss...” Duusu quietly apologizes, sitting on the bed right next to the woman.

Nathalie holds the kwami’s gaze for a few moments, before making a slight hint of a nod and turning back to the book she was reading.

Duusu sighs. She can understand her, really. All of that forced rest is making her more and more impatient by the day. She would want to be there with Gabriel, and fight alongside Hawkmoth to try and dig a way out of the tedious, unnerving stalemate their lives have been in for the past year.

But she can’t. And instead she’s forced to bear a seemingly endless series of empty, boring days, confined in her bedroom.

The kwami is getting bored as well, not even able to bask in emotions to spend her time. Three of the four people that usually fill the house with waves of feelings now are off to New York, and the usually strong waves of emotions that radiate from her holder whenever she’s alone with the kwami now are sparse and brief, almost like the regular, boring beeping coming from the machinery.

_Beep_.

In more than one occasion, Nathalie finds herself staring at the machine’s screen, almost as if hypnotized by the fluctuating waves and the numbers figuring on it.

She doesn’t really understand much about medical stuff, and she doesn’t know what most of those numbers mean; she only knows that the machine beeps louder and faster when she’s having one of her illness’ attacks, and when it does, Gabriel always comes running into her room to help her.

_Beep_.

What if the machine will beat louder now that he’s gone - now that  _everyone else_ is gone?

She’s slowing starting to feel better, but... Sometimes she’s still afraid.

_Beep.  
_ At times, she feels grateful.

Grateful for being in a comfortable bed instead of a permanent sleep in the cryogenic chamber downstairs, and grateful for the precious folded sheet of paper she keeps on her nightstand. Nathalie picks it up one more time, her eyes running along the “Get well soon, Miss Nathalie!” handwritten in red capital letters, under which there are a good dozen of different signatures.

She can make out Chloe’s, Marinette’s, Nino’s... some others are names she doesn’t have a face to match to. Who’s Ivan? And Marc? Alix?

And, of course, among the various signatures there is also Adrien’s.

_Beep_.

Nathalie spends her time between computer work and studying the Grimoire. Every now and then, a flicker of fascination shines in her eyes as she delicately runs her fingers along the edges of the book’s illustrations.

She finds herself wondering: What would it feel like to be a super-heroine? Saving the day, being loved and respected by everyone... For a brief moment she envies her young arch-rivals for all of the things that they have already achieved, and that she probably never will.

_Beep_.

One night she dreams she’s Ladybug, and that a Chat Noir with grayish-blonde hair and dark blue eyes meets her on the top of the Eiffel Tower and greets her with a kiss.

_Beep_.

The next day, Gabriel calls for Mayura’s help. Nathalie feels a short but intense sting of disappointment.

She half-hoped he would have had mercy of her in her weakened state, taking his time to dedicate himself only to her. Maybe if he stayed far from the lair long enough he could even forget about akumas for a while.

She should have known better...

The amok she sent out was rather easy to create and control, but even if the Miraculous jewel is now fixed, she still finds herself feeling nauseous after she detransforms.

Once she feels better enough, she checks her tablet for the news.

_Beep_.

For several solid minutes all she feels is regret. Ladybug never came to fix the mess, and Paris was now still affected by the quite huge damages her amok had inflicted.

Everything Mayura and Hawkmoth did up till now was erasable, fixable -  _forgettable_ \- as long as Ladybug was there to send everybody back to the safety of their homes.

She’s a legitimate criminal, now.

_Beep_.

Regret and fear.

How the hell did she end up getting involved in all of this?

_Beep_.

The answer to that question comes visit her again a few days later, as soon as he returns home.

He makes a short observation about how now she looks less pale than a week ago, and then proceeds to ramble on and on about the american superheroes and the new Miraculous he found.

Nathalie finds herself unable to hide a small smile; Gabriel is talking so passionately, even walking back and forth through the room...

_ Beep. Beep. _

Duusu, hidden behind her, giggles happily. Finally! She can already feel Adrien’s happiness as he video-calls his friends, and the subtle waves of love flowing once again from her holder. 

Even though she loves to live as if she was still a child, Duusu is as old as the other kwamis, and she’s pretty receptive when it comes to things and people that she cares about. She knows that it still won’t be easy for things to get better, and that the hole to dig in order to get out of the stasis is still far from being dug but, now that Mr. Agreste is back, she and Nathalie can resume their fight.

There’s still hope.

_Beep._

There’s still time.

_Beep_.

It will work out, one way or another.


End file.
